ALLENTOWN - Just days prior to its start in the 20th annual SportsFest A-Town Throwdown tournament, the Lehighton girls basketball team ended its play in the Catasauqua Summer League on a high note. The Lady Indians defeated last year's champion, East Stroudsburg North, to claim the 2016 championship.

That success seemed to translate into this past week's SportsFest four-day tournament at Cedar Beach Park.Lehighton, one of seven Times News area teams to play in the tournament, won two of its three games in pool play to advance to Sunday morning. The Lady Indians' run eventually came to an end against Central Dauphin East, one of the four semifinalists, by way of a 41-33 defeat.The Lady Indians' pool included a lit bit of everything. After a grind out 31-20 win over Palmerton to open the tournament, Lehighton disposed of EPC foe Parkland's JV team by a score of 42-20.Hours after that victory, one of the EPC's elite squads in Becahi awaited. And despite a hard-fought effort, the Golden Hawks were able to edge Lehighton by six points."We're coming in as the underdogs, but as you can see we can compete with the higher teams," said guard Aubrey Blasiak, an incoming junior. "At Lehighton, we're a small school, so nobody really looks at us to a great team. That's what our goal is to be. That's what we're supposed to be looked at by other teams, to be a challenge."Along with Blasiak, Sky Faust and Jada Whiteman will be the main pieces in helping the Indians replace five graduates from last year's squad. The trio did its part in guiding the Lady Indians to Championship Sunday, a feat that was well within their grasp last year before coming up short of that goal."Last year we missed playing on Championship Sunday by a point at the buzzer," Lehighton coach Eric Gidney said. "We lost at the buzzer. For us, we would like to do it, but I think more importantly, we'd like to just keep gelling as a team."Lehighton certainly looks as if it's gelling throughout the summer judging by the Catty Summer League and then their showing at SportsFest. Now they're hoping it translates to the winter season."We brought a lot of our younger girls to play," Blasiak said. "What we're trying to get out of it is just learning, working together, seeing who we are as a team and who we can compete with."Palmerton went 1-2 in that same pool, with their victory coming against Parkland's JV team on Saturday, 34-31. Northwestern and Jim Thorpe, two other Times News teams, were paired up in the same pool along with eventual champion Nazareth, as well as last year's state champion in Dunmore. Northwestern defeated Jim Thorpe (45-34) and went 1-2, while Jim Thorpe went 0-3 over the course of the tournament.On the boys' side, Northwestern once again faced a difficult set of matchups much like the one it saw at Stellar a week ago. The Tigers opened with a convincing 47-28 win over AFBE, a team from France, before falling short to Springfield Delco (47-40) and eventual champion Liberty (54-35) on Saturday.Despite facing tough competition for the second straight week, including matchups against both the Stellar and SportsFest eventual champions, head coach Billy Hallman is seeing plenty of improvement."I think they were a little shell-shocked at Stellar in the two games, especially with who we played, it was a wakeup call," Hallman said. "They were able to take it all in over the week, and then Friday night they were completely different kids. Even on Saturday, we didn't get a win but we played well in both games."One of the biggest takeaways for Hallman and the Tigers was the fact that his younger players, who'll need to step up for four lost starters from last year, got to experience an atmosphere similar to the varsity hoops stage."We played three quality teams," Hallman said. "Friday night was fun, being we were playing a team from France, we got to play at 8 p.m. under the lights at Cedar Beach. There was a good crowd and a lot of excitement, and I think our guys were really amped up for it. Our younger guys really stepped up and played really well Friday night. I was really proud of how they played."Pleasant Valley and Palmerton were the other two Times News area boys teams to compete. The Bears went 1-2 in pool play and picked up a solid 45-29 win over Wilson, while the Blue Bombers went 0-3 in their pool with losse to Parkland (47-27), Central Dauphin East (47-27) and Harry S. Truman (56-37).CHAMPS ... Nazareth beat Northampton, 57-48, to win the girls title while Liberty defeated Whitehall with a huge second half to earn a 54-48 win in the boys' championship game.THE BEST OF THE BEST ... Nazareth's Tessa Brugler was named the girls' Most Valuable Player of the tournament. Liberty's Alex Serrano earned the award on the boys' side.BACK TO BACK ... Northwestern's Sam Yadush won the three-point contest for the second straight year. Yadush was unable to play in the tournament due to injury.